


What Was Left Behind

by ohprettyweeper



Series: The Last Bandito [3]
Category: Trench - Twenty One Pilots (Album), Twenty One Pilots
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-03
Updated: 2019-02-03
Packaged: 2019-10-21 20:46:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,489
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17649581
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ohprettyweeper/pseuds/ohprettyweeper
Summary: A bit of history from Old Dema.





	What Was Left Behind

**Author's Note:**

> I had forgotten to mention previously that any bolded phrases are generally prompts from a board on Pinterest I have saved specifically for this work.

_Thirty Years Ago_

The walls of Dema had never seemed so confining as they did the day that the Bishops arrested Sixten, and Nico had him executed. Carice’s tears fell silently; sobs threatened to escape, but survival trumped her heartbreak and she managed to keep the cries at bay. 

The child within her flipped and turned. Carice longed to escape Dema, to escape the Bishops and her own fate. In the same moment this child breathed its first breath, she would breathe her last. 

The long hours of that first night without her beloved turned to days then weeks and months. Her belly grew, as did the life within her. The Bishops moved her from her regular quarters to somewhere more comfortable. There, the walls were white, her bed was cushioned, and the blankets were soft and warm. The food they fed her was fresh and filling. The water was clean and crisp. 

In the first days in her new home, Carice would look out to the city below. Heathens and humans alike treaded the streets, doing the work assigned by the Bishops. Dema was not as it had been when Carice was born; then, all of the inhabitants inside the wall were native to this dark town. When the Banditos had begun to escape those many years ago, and the vampire experiments had begun, new citizens were stolen from New Dema and other places of which Carice did not know the name, and brought to Old Dema. Their memories were erased, and, soon, so was the pure bloodline of the original Banditos. She and Sixten had both been born here, grown up together. Their baby was the last of the pure Bandito bloodline. 

As she ended her seventh month, Carice was visited by the Bishop Keons. Her brow was furrowed as she sat on her bed, reading a book in a language only known within the walls of Dema.  

“The words trouble you?” Keons asked. 

Carice looked up; at the realization of the Bishop’s presence, she quickly dropped her book and stood, as she had always been taught to do when the Bishops graced her with their presence. 

“No, Keons,” Carice replied, careful to speak clearly and not look the Bishop in the eye. “I find the content quite interesting, actually. The history of our dark town.”

Keons did not acknowledge her reply. Instead, he carefully but deliberately walked toward Carice, hands outstretched to her. When he placed a hand on either side of her belly, Carice stepped back; she appreciated the Bishops’ hospitality while she was in such a condition but Carice was under no delusions that her fate may change. Any relationship with a Heathen stemming beyond that of casual acquaintance was strictly forbidden in Dema. She had made the mistake of falling in love with one. 

Keons looked at her, not so much smiling, but certainly with a more kind look than Carice had ever seen on the face of any Bishop. He assured the young woman that he was not out to hurt her or her baby, and once against placed his hands on either side of her belly. 

“ _Dytyna vseredyni vas vryatuye,_ ” Keons whispered. He looked right at Carice. “This child will be something different, something new.”

Carice frowned. “What do you mean?”

Keons’s hands fell away from her. “That’s the beauty of it. New life holds so many possibilities as it is, but this new life holds more possibilities than even we can dream. She must be protected, but not guarded so closely as to stifle her. She must become what she is to become on her own — and that cannot happen here.”

Carice did not know what surprised her the most: that Keons was implying her baby would have to leave the walls of Dema, or that he had just revealed to her the sex of the baby. 

“It’s a girl?” she managed, tears watering in her eyes. If only Sixten could have been here to know this. 

Keons nodded. “Sit, my dear.”

Carice did as she was instructed. She listened while Keons told her about the Banditos — those who had escaped Dema over the centuries the city had been in place. These men and women had set up camps at first, but now had developed a full civilization outside of the wall. 

“They call it New Dema,” Keons informed her. “It’s where your brother is now.”

Another shock to her system. Her brother, Geir, had been long thought dead after his attempt to escape the Bishops’ tyranny. That he had survived the attempt had never occurred to her. Keons went on to tell her of the civilization outside the wall. There was light there, he said, and heat. The sort of accommodations she enjoyed now — and better — were the sort of conditions that were the norm in New Dema. 

“We have to get your baby to New Dema,” Keons informed her. “If your child grows up here, she will be used as the ultimate weapon against the Banditos. She will destroy all the good that has come from escaping this place.”

Carice took a deep breath. “Why are you helping me?”

Keons pursed his lips together. “The right thing cannot be done too soon, or too late. I will visit you again, and we will begin to plan.”

Carice watched the red-hooded figure go, wondering what news and information his next visit would bring. 

The Bishop visited her seven times before her child was born. He told her what they knew of New Dema, how she would find Geir, and how to protect the child after she was born. Keons had been in touch with Geir, he said, who was sending other Banditos to come for the baby when the time came. 

Exactly on the date expected, Carice found herself groaning in pain in the wee hours of the morning. The baby was coming, and it wasn’t going to be a long process. Out of nowhere, Keons appeared, draped her in a red robe not unlike his own, and hurried her outside of the wall of Dema. 

It was the first time that Carice had seen the land outside of the Bishops’ rule. She looked towards the city of New Dema and, as another first, saw the sun coming up over the horizon in the same moment that Keons safely delivered her screaming baby girl into the world. 

Two men dressed in black pants, boots, and olive green coats with yellow markings took the baby before Carice could hold her. 

“Please,” Carice cried. “Let me see her.”

The men exchanged a glance, then brought the baby towards the woman. She took the infant into her arms, wiped the fluids away from the baby’s face, and smiled. She wrapped the baby in the blanket made especially for her, then named the baby, out loud, then and there. 

“Tell my brother she has a name,” Carice pleaded, handing the baby back to the men. “Tell him would we have known he was still alive, we would have searched for him.”

The two men who now held custody of the baby exchanged a curious glance, then turned to walk away. Carice fell to her knees, sobbing out loud as she watched her child get further and further away from her. 

Keons placed one hand on Carice’s shoulder, as though to comfort her. “Your child is in good hands.”

Carice took several deep breaths, her head hanging low. “And what will happen to me now?”

“Now,” Keons replied, placing a hand under her chin to lift her head, “you will go to meet your brother.”

The woman had only a moment to wonder over the Bishop’s words before his sharp, glass knife slid smoothly across her throat, her life pouring from the wound until it was no more. 

* * *

_Present Day_

She sat on the edge of her bed, unable to sleep though the hour was late. Memories that were not her own plagued her mind and kept rest from coming. In a feeble attempt to quell the distress boiling within her soul, she reached into her nightstand for the small piece of paper that had been found wrapped in a blanket with her the day she was brought into New Dema. 

**_To whoever finds this message, they erased us. This is all that remains. Remember us, please._ **

She looked down to that scrap of paper and wondered what her life would be now if her mother had been able to escape Dema with her. If she had not been adopted, had not become the thing she was today. 

A shrill ring of the phone brought her back to the late hour and reality. There was only one voice that could be on the other end, so she didn’t bother with a greeting. 

**“We need you again. They’ve taken another one.”**

 That short message, and then the voice on the other end disconnected the call. 


End file.
